National Park officials: 'no body to recover', call off search for man

National Park officials have called off the search for the mortal remains of 23-year-old Colin Nathanial Scott of Portland, Oregon. The young man was with his sister, Sable Scott, on June 7 in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming when he apparently stepped off the boardwalk at the park’s Pork Chop Geyser.

Park spokesperson Charissa Reid said of the result, “They were able to recover a few personal effects.” Speaking in the aftermath on June 8, Reid said “There were no remains left to recover.” Park officials told the Casper Star-Tribune that the incident is a probable death. Recovery efforts were made, but then called off. At the time of the initial report, Reid “All we know is that there is a person in the hot springs. It’s a pretty dynamic situation.”

“We extend our sympathy to the Scott family,” Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Dan Wenk said in a statement. “This tragic event must remind all of us to follow the regulations and stay on boardwalks when visiting Yellowstone’s geyser basins.”

The tragic circumstances occurred sometime mid-afternoon in the Norris Geyser Basin, Reid said. Scott ventured about 0.13 miles off the designated boardwalk that is designed to protect both visitors and the delicate thermal formations in the geyser basins. According to the park website, Norris Geyser Basin is the “hottest, oldest, and most dynamic of Yellowstone’s thermal areas, very few” thermal features below the boiling point. Geysers and hot springs have killed more people at Yellowstone than any other natural venture.

On June 4, a 13-year-old boy was taken by air ambulance to a hospital in Jackson, Wyoming, after falling into a thermal feature in Yellowstone’s Upper Geyser Basin. The boy suffered burns to his feet and ankles, while his father received burns from splashes of super-heated water. The father faces citations for leaving the safe boardwalk, disorderly conduct, and creating a dangerous situation.